Texas Instructional Leadership

Observation & Feedback provides campus and district leaders opportunities to develop proficiency in establishing and coaching toward effective instructional practices in every classroom. It blends the practices and principles in Paul Bambrick-Santoyo’s book Get Better Faster: A 90-Day Plan for Coaching New Teachers with the T-TESS appraisal framework.

It introduces a paradigm shift in the way we view teacher observation, and suggests that the primary purpose of observation and feedback is not to evaluate a teacher but to develop them. In the Observation & Feedback module, you grow educators by letting them See It, Name It, and Do It.

Observation & Feedback helps teachers think through and break down the most critical actions teacher must take to strengthen practice and achieve outstanding academic results

Critical Actions of Observation & Feedback

• Develop Essential Routines and Procedures

• Roll Out and Monitor Routines

• Engage Every Student

• Set Routines for Discourse

• Write Effective Lesson Plans

• Give Students Opportunities for Independent Practice

• Responding to Student Learning Needs

• Facilitate Student Discourse

Data-Driven Instruction is a highly effective research-based training that requires deep analysis of student work. Administrators lead teachers on how to spend less time teaching students what they already know and more time on what they need. It also answers the questions, “How do I know if my students are learning? And if they aren’t, what do I do?”​

First – teachers develop content knowledge by unpacking standards and analyzing aligned assessment items. Then they look at actual student responses through a Student Work Analysis Protocol to identify the gap between what students show and what they need to know. Finally they create and practice a targeted reteach plan focused solely on their students’ gaps. Campuses that have engaged in this training have seen huge increases in student mastery.

In Data Driven Instruction, strong instructional leaders prepare, plan and practice leading effective data meetings. Understanding student mastery and intentionally teaching to address misconceptions ensures that teachers have time to teach what students need to know to prepare them for the next grade, course, and high-stakes testing.

Critical Actions of Data Driven Instruction

• Preparing to Lead Data Meetings

• Practicing and Simulating Effective Data Meetings

• Planning Types of Reteach: Modeling and Guided Discourse

Materials Internalization and Alignment content builds the capacity of campus and district leaders to invest and coach teachers on the systemic internalization of HQIM units and lessons leading to high-quality, impactful instruction grounded in research-based instructional strategies. 

This module provides professional development on the job, so that educators know how to skillfully use and adapt the material to their own context in order to meet each student’s needs. 

Critical Actions of Materials Internalization & Assessment

• Understand the importance of high quality instructional material, internalization and connections to research-based instructional strategies
• Effective Unit and Lesson Internalization with English Language Arts
• Effective Unit and Lesson Internalization with English Language Arts Foundational Skills (K-2) 
• Effective Unit and Lesson Internalization with Math 
• Coaching on Materials Internalization and Alignment 

The Schoolwide Culture Routines Module trains leaders to develop their cultural vision and the systems to bring that vision to reality, monitor it throughout the year and how to intervene when necessary to ensure it stays strong.

Schoolwide culture routines bring the mission and vision to life. Strengthening school culture and routines will maximize instructional time and develop effective habits to ensure the safety of students and staff. 

Critical Actions of Schoolwide Culture Routines

• See it

  • Craft a Vision

  • Anticipate the GapName It

• Name it
  • Define a Minute-by-Minute Plan

  • Set Goals and Deadlines

  • Develop a Rubric

• Do It
  • Plan the Roll-Out

  • Practice the Roll-Out

  • Monitor and Follow-up

We offer professional development on Observation & Feedback, Data-Driven Instruction, Materials Internalization & Alignment and Schoolwide Culture Routines for campuses and districts looking to increase student achievement overall, and close gaps between student sub-groups.

As with many other trainings offered at ESCs, Texas Instructional Leadership trainings have a face-to-face professional development component. Campuses and districts that choose to participate in a training will be part of a cohort of campuses that will meet together to learn instructional leadership best practices and have an opportunity to practice their new skills together in a low stakes environment..

Unlike many of the other trainings offered by ESCs, Texas Instructional Leadership trainings include two additional training components beyond face-to-face professional development. The first is implementation support. Following face-to-face professional development, trainers will observe participants attempting to implement their new skills on their campuses or in their districts either virtually or in person, and provide additional tailored support to ensure the skills are applied successfully.

Following implementation support visits, trainers will coach district administrators on how to best guide principals toward successfully integrating the instructional leadership best practices on their campuses, as well as provide one on one support to shape district practices and policies to make the work more sustainable.